Amulet #9 - Purpose

They made me into a monster, she thought. Immediately, she corrected herself. No, I did that tomyself.

The transformation was not quite complete. A look downward offered a glimmer of hope as shesaw a patch of skin – human skin – still existed on her forearm.

She slapped her hand onto the device beside the door, and her horriﬁc reﬂection was jarred away. Beyond, she saw a narrow path through the world outside. At one point, it may have been moreenclosed – a solid wall existed to the right, but the left side was more open. Wide, empty slotslay where windows might have been. As she stepped forward, her eyes looked over the expanseof orange sand.

For a long moment, she stopped and stared into the distance. Seeing it for the ﬁrst time with anopen mind caused her to realize that it had a special kind of beauty to it. Wisps of dust dancedon the wind and swirled across the scene. She placed her hands atop the sill and saw light glistenfrom her scaly claws.

I need to ﬁnd help, she thought. I can’t go home like this.

She wanted to be angry – she wanted to blame the aliens for changing her and stealing her awayto another world. In that moment, however, she began to understand their side of things. Whatthey did was in the name of peace – if they had come through her wall and marched into public,the fear and violence to follow might have been catastrophic.

I never even apologized.

She turned her attention down the walkway. Filled with a new sense of purpose, she began torun quickly through the slats of light with a thick tail trailing behind her.